THE JULY FIELDS 121 



the lilac pyramidal heads of C. spicata are strik- 

 ing "bits of colour" where the grass is sparser. 

 So also are the lovely deep-blue, pea-like masses 

 of Vicia onobrjjchioides, associating with Rampion, 

 Arnica, and JMartagon or Turk's-cap Lily. Dian- 

 thus superbus spreads a lace-like mantle of pink 

 and white over the shadier portions of the fields 

 by the forest's edge ; and D. sylvestris is a glory 

 of flesh-pink upon the hotter slopes by the rocks. 

 Aconitum Napellus, blue Monkshood or Char de 

 Venus, is not hereabouts as on the higher pas- 

 tures ; neither are the yellow and orange pea-like 

 Orobus luteus and that curious Bellflower, Cam- 

 panula thyrsoides, with its stumpy hollow stem 

 surmounted by a close-set mass of washed-out 

 yellow flowers ; nor is the handsome large-flowered 

 yellow Foxglo\^e {Digitalis ambigua) so plentiful 

 in the Jura Mountains and in other limestone 

 districts. But Thalictrum aquilcgifolium, most 

 seductive of the Meadowrues, raises its soft-lilac 

 or cream-white plumes — often beside the majestic 

 cream-white plumes of Spiraea Aruncus, Queen 

 of the Fields — in luxuriant hollows where dwell 

 bushes of Alpine Eglantine and Honeysuckle. In 

 these rich, grassy hollows, too, are noble plants of 

 the sticky, yellow Salvia glutinosa, or Jupiter's 



